whatMsg?

My oldest daughter, K, just started preschool 2 days ago.  She did great, probably better than me and I am generally not a sappy whimp. Yes, I teared up driving home after dropping her off.  On her first day of school, upon entering her classroom and taking a tour around the room, K sits down with two little girls and another mother and promptly tells me that I can go now, she is playing (in Estonian.)  So, what’s a mother to do, I was the first mother out of 12 to leave.  No crying from my child.  Day 2 today was about the same except, no tour or even a good-bye, K just wondered off and started talking to other kids and parents.  I didn’t realize just what a little conversationalist my almost 3 year old is until I went to pick her up at school.  While waiting for class to get out, it turned out that two random mothers who I had started talking with already knew my daughter from her talking with them earlier in the morning.  I praise her friendliness all the time and hope she will always be so brave socially.  I was painfully shy as a child and think that being outgoing has got to be more fun.

But, on to the topic of the post.  It turns out that out of the 12 kids in my daughter’s preschool class, 6 of them speak a language other than English at home- and none of the 6 languages are duplicates nor Spanish.  This is so amazing because we live in a rather homogoneous suburb with very little apparent diversity.  But boy does my daughter’s classroom have a diversity of languages!  There’s Estonian of course, then French, Dutch, Hindu and Urdu languages represented.  I don’t yet know what the 6th language is, but will figure it out soon I am sure. The teacher has been teaching here for 5 years since this school opened and in WA for over 15 years and said this is the first time she has had such diversity in her classes.  Usually there might be just one child who was multilingual. So, it would appear that I have many mothers of bilingual children to compare notes with.

As for my youngest daughter, A, she simply blooms during the 2 hours K is in school and has all attention focused on her.  We read books, play with trains how A likes to (mostly taking things apart which drives K crazy) and in generaly have a very pleasant, nonconfrontational time.  With K around there is always some sort of drama as is normal with an almost 3 year old.  A is saying words like crazy now in both English and Estonian and I can tell she hasn’t figured out the two languages yet.  She also shakes her head for both no and yes and in general we have no problem communicating and I think we understand each other perfectly.  I have to say, I have not witnessed frustration on behalf of either of my children from them not being able to communicate with me- and we don’t even do sign language. They do some sign language in preschool, though it isn’t a personal interest of mine so if K is interested I’ll encourage her and she can teach me!